Sony DSEE HX with CD playback?

[Jayant_S]

I have a Sony UHD BD player that's being used mainly as a CD transport - coaxial digital out connected to external DAC.
All along I've been very happy with the playback, until I discovered the DSEE HX setting that was off till now.

Now with everything else remaining the same in the chain, my DAC says incoming sampling rate is 88.2khz. For CD?? Isn't DSEE a flaky algorithm for up sampling compressed audio to supposedly "near high-res" quality? What's it doing to my CD digital out stream? Up sampling?

I played the same song repeatedly with the setting turned off and on, going between 44.1 and 88.2khz on my DAC. I can definitely hear a difference but can't for the life of me decide that's it's better or worse!
Any of you guys have experience with Sony DSEE HX?
Expert advice would be most welcome.

 

[Jayant_S]

So with the flood of incoming advice I decided to just trust my ears and test it to death.

I played 15-16 CDs across genres ( a mix of jazz, classic rock, indie folk, pop, instrumental and prog rock) and switched them between DSEE on and off.
The algorithm is definitely trying to up sample the digital output stream and attempts to "smartly fill in" the missing samples.
For the most part, the music sounded stretched and brittle with DSEE HX on.
In short, I can safely say don't use it with CD playback! I think it messes with the stream far too much and you're best served just ignoring this feature with Sony devices.

 

[balavignesh002]

With up sampling you should get a better crossover when dsp is used. Most of the dsp up-samples the incomming signal and perform crossover, though there will be an option to disable it.

 

[Jayant_S]

With up sampling you should get a better crossover when dsp is used. Most of the dsp up-samples the incomming signal and perform crossover, though there will be an option to disable it.

All very true Bala. However based on what I heard specifically with Sony's DSEE HX, SQ is best without turning this on for a CD digital out stream

 

[balavignesh002]

All very true Bala. However based on what I heard specifically with Sony's DSEE HX, SQ is best without turning this on for a CD digital out stream

Makes sense for your setup. Your ear is the best judge.